Saturn-Sized Star Will Live For 12 Trillion Years

Every star that now shines will one day die, but some stars live far longer than others. Our 4.6-billion-year-old Sun will shrivel into a white dwarf in 7.8 billion years. Now astronomers say a dim red star south of the constellation Orion will outlive any other yet examined. "It actually will live for much longer than the current age of the universe—for literally trillions of years," says Sergio Dieterich, an astronomer at Georgia State University.

Staff: Mentor

Not all red dwarf stars are fully convective. The more massive red dwarfs have radiative cores, as the Sun does. The less massive red dwarfs are fully convective, which does indeed prolong their lives. "Fully convective" means that material can move from one place inside a star to any other place. This situation prolongs a star's life because the star can waft fresh hydrogen from its outer regions into its hydrogen-burning core--an impossibility for the Sun or a more massive red dwarf.